hi i have recently having issues with uvm_mapent_alloc: out of static map entries on 4.8 since i have read it seems that the best way it is to upgrade but i just was wondering to do it from steps from 4.8 to 5.3 but some god folk told me to just upgrade directly from 5.3 then pkg_add -r and fix what it does not work but im a little concern about doing this any advice?

Just to reinforce the comments already made, the advice provided to you on misc@ is incorrect. Upgrading from one release to the next successive release is the only supported update path provided by the project. Upgrading by skipping intermediate releases is not supported.

It wasn't clear to me from reading polken's post here, nor reading the mentioned thread in misc@ that the recommendation to upgrade was a "direct" jump. I'm glad that ocicat posted his warning, in case that was what was being considered.

Upgrading is not difficult nor is it particularly time consuming. The sysmerge(8) tool automates upgrades of modified /etc configuration files. If upgrading is overwhelming, reinstalling the OS is also a possibility.

The real question is whether 5.3-release will resolve the problem. The easiest way to test this is with a second disk drive -- as I mentioned in my first post above.